RPG Playground Roadmap

Here is an overview of what you can expect for future releases of RPG Playground. But remark that nothing on this page is certain. Features might change, priorities might shift, etc.

You will also notice that no dates or deadlines are specified. Features are implemented as fast as possible and released when they are ready. So you won’t have to wait for the next major release to use them.

If you don’t agree with something, want to prioritize features or request new functionality, let me know in the comments below, or email me at koen@koonsolo.com.

Release 1.0: Action Adventure

Goal of this release

You can create, share and play, top-down 2D action adventure games, in the style of The Legend of Zelda. This is a “no-loose-ends” version of RPG Playground.

It includes:

Sound and Music

Multiple levels (walk inside buildings, etc.)

Screenplays (conversations, moving NPC’s, text with icons, … .)

Fight with monsters

Start, lose and win screens

Share your game with the rest of the community

It won’t include:

Inventory (for item management)

Below is a list of all things that still need to be done for this release. High priority features are listed first. If you want to push a certain feature earlier, just let me know.

Screenplay creation wizard

Screenplays are currently created using text. I don’t like this, and want to introduce an easy to use wizard to add actions. This way you can click through some dialogs, and easily add functionality. This also means you don’t have to read through the manual to know what can be done with screenplays, you don’t get programming errors, etc.

Share with the community

It should be easier to share your game with others, and play games that others made. So I want to make something similar to ‘Super Mario Maker’ where you can choose to either make a game and share it, or play someone else’s game.

Fight monsters

Hero swings sword

Hero kills monsters

Monsters walk around

Monsters hurt hero

Hero can die

Health potion pickups

This also includes restarting the game.

Arcade mode: always restarts the entire game, so no save points!

Sound and Music

Sounds and music adds a lot to the gaming experience. You should be able to use your own music and ambient background sounds for this.

More user friendly interface

Some things are really cumbersome at the moment, like selecting an actor to change the screenplay. I want to make this way more user friendly and easier.

Autotiles

Animated tiles

Animated water, waterfalls, lava, … would really make the game more compelling.

Start of level screenplay

Now only actors support custom screenplays. But this will add screenplays to levels, so when the level starts, a certain sequence of actions is triggered. Great way to create scripted cut-scenes.

Release 2.0: More story elements

New screenplay action: info dialog with icon

This action will show a popup dialog, containing custom text. You can also show an icon, so together with tokens, you can simulate receiving items.

New screenplay action: actor shows text

Next to actors saying something, this action will show some text right above the actor. This is useful for actors that don’t have a face images such as monsters and interactive objects such as treasure chests, signs, … .

New screenplay action: player chooses

This action will show a dialog where the player can choose one of the available options. This can be used for responding to NPC’s, so you have conversation trees.

Tutorial at startup

A tutorial that guides newbies through the most basic elements would be convenient.

Mobile App

After a few modifications to make RPG Playground touch friendly, a Mobile App might be released. You can continue working on your project from a tablet or smartphone. Great way to kill time at boring parties ;).

Flash portals release

RPG Playground will be pushed to flash portals such as Newgrounds and Kongregate.

Standalone Desktop Version

I might consider releasing a standalone desktop application of RPG Playground (Windows, Mac OS and Linux). But his is not certain yet, and only when a high number of users want this.

Will be available directly on this site, Steam, Mac App Store and Windows Store.

Benefits of the online version:

Use the gatest features (newer than in the latest official standalone version)

Access from anywhere

Online storage, automatic backup

RPG Playground benefits of the online version:

Direct feedback on bugs and issues

No illegal pirated copies

I understand why people want a standalone version:

No internet connection required

Single upfront payment

You own your own copy of the software

Always the same version

No Kickstarter

Although I haven’t completely excluded it, chances are small that I will use Kickstarter, or any other crowd sourcing platform, to get funding.

But if the future tells me an extra upfront investment is needed, I might reconsider.

Release 4.0: Role Playing Game

Release 5.0: Turn-based combat

This release adds turn-based combat that can be used instead of the action based fighting.

Future releases

After the above releases, there are still things that can be implemented. I’m giving them as a list here because it is not certain if and when they would make it into a release.

Side Scrolling Levels

This release enables creating platform games, but also more complex Metroidvania style games.

Multiplayer

Single player games are fun, but multiplayer games take it to an entirely new dimension. Making a mutliplayer RPG by yourself is not an easy task. But with RPG Playground, anyone can add multiplayer support to their game. You don’t need to host a server, take care of security etc. Everything you need will be provided by RPG Playground. Quick and easy, as it should be.

Generic 2D Game Editor

This release allows you to make any 2D game you want. But the ease of use to create RPG’s will still be available!

3D view

Instead of the normal 2D graphics, a 3D world is now displayed, in which you can navigate. You can now make 3D role playing games.

15 thoughts on “RPG Playground Roadmap”

My first idea for RPG Playground was to create a collaborative, multiplayer RPG Maker. This means multiple people log into the same world, can adapt everything simultaneously, and talk to each other ingame. Kind of like an MMORPG where everyone can change the game. But the more users I got with my first prototype (which didn’t have any multiplayer yet), the more I realized they wanted to make their own story, their own game.

I know it isn’t in this roadmap, but it definitely hasn’t left my mind. Maybe I should add it as a possible extra feature, and if enough users request it, I would definitely add it. It’s one of those features that is hard to implement by someone starting out with game development. So providing this with an easy to use package would definitely be valuable. But as I said, there needs to be a minimum baseline of people who want this feature.

Yes, I know you are really curious. (Sorry, not subscribed to this thread). But Koen has had some personal issues lately, which have been hindering progress. I don’t know, things like this take a long time to heal. So…even if it may help him deal with his issues to work, he’s probably not very motivated to. Which is fine, as his personal life comes first, job comes second. We just need to be really patient and supportive as Koen recovers.

I totally dig the entire concept of this and have messed around a little bit to see how smoothly the process can go. It’s amazing! I’m a music producer, so if you need some music definitely hit me up and I’ll whip up some medieval action adventure music for ya!